Adaptive incremental backstepping control of stratospheric airships using time-delay estimation

This paper proposes an adaptive incremental backstepping control method for stratospheric airship attitude control that combines time delay estimation and incremental backstepping control to enhance robustness under model uncertainties. By integrating incremental control and time delay estimation, a linear time-invariant system relating to the attitude angle tracking error is obtained, where the time-delay estimation error is treated as a disturbance to the system. Meanwhile, an adaptive technique is utilized to reduce the effects of noise and center-of-gravity variations on system robustness. In conclusion, the convergence property of all signals is meticulously examined by employing Lyapunov theory. The proposed scheme is subsequently validated for effectiveness through numerical simulations.